Most organizations don’t have the resources to let people travel without an actual event on the other end.

I could be wrong, but I suspect visas may be affected as well.

The organizers and attendees will try and coordinate something else. However, throwing something together on zoom, at such short notice is going to be a crap show.

The schedules wouldn’t survive unscathed, since speakers will start dropping out at this point.

If they do manage to get something together, they run the real risk of it being a rickety and frustrating event.

> Who would have to be threatened so much to cancel this?

What?

The government of the host country said some of the themes were potentially at odds with their national policy, and they weren't sure they liked some of the people involved.

That doesn't sound like anyone was threatened, it sounds like they should have picked somewhere with a stronger tradition of free dialogue.

You said; "it sounds like they should have picked somewhere with a stronger tradition of free dialogue."

Where would that be in today's world? Within the past decade, nearly every country in the world has overtly attacked digital freedoms. Can you name one country that has improved digital freedoms during the past decade?

It seems to me that this conference should be held online only, and hosted from an undisclosed location.

Now this is climate science I can get behind.

List?

The Plain of Jars is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. It consists of thousands of stone jars scattered around the upland valleys and the lower foothills of the central plain of the Xiangkhoang Plateau. The jars are arranged in clusters ranging in number from one to several hundred.

sounds like a strong case of ego

It's call alcohol

It is not the same

"Failed to initialize playground"

Try again once or twice.

Couldn't have a more cliché reply. Now I know why the greatest artists hide from most others.

Analog technology is infinitely complex, as is the real world. Digital is not. AS within as without. If you want to lack soul and wonder, why.

A human genome fits on a single hard drive -- think of all the ways you could fill it?

Irrelevant. Genetic code is a human interpreted construct. It lacks infinite complexity because it is a mirror that we can understand and use. Like a code for a computer. You are not looking far enough into the real world.